Major Pruning

Published by christi on February 28, 2019February 28, 2019

The roof of wooden lattice suspended on three long pieces of metal pipe supported by aging wooden trellis on one end and a rusting archway on the other finally gave up the ghost!

I planted the Thompson seedless grape vines the first spring we lived in this house (over fifteen years ago), and pruned them so as to make both a shaded “quiet space” and to produce fruit. As time passed, small improvements were made to the little outdoor room that has hosted a mother-daughter tea for two, quiet moonlit conversations and intimate times with Jesus. Brick not needed by a neighbor had been laid on sand as a floor, and a small  a fountain bubbled there for a while. But when the whole thing threatened to collapse, big changes were needed, so my husband drew up plans for major improvement.

He cut lumber, screwed in hurricane straps, re-laid the edges of the brick floor in concrete and placed rebar grids overhead on the “rafters” for the grapes to climb across. I painted, oo-ed and ah-ed, and made other approving noises…until I saw that the vines were no longer in the right place! They had not moved, but the new design for the quiet space meant that only half of one vine could remain. It was too large to re-direct, and all the growth that would come from it would not fit with the new specs of the “room.”

With tears, I took out the bow saw, and as I removed a very large arm of the vine, a new understanding of God’s pruning process began to grow. The grapevine did nothing wrong, it just didn’t fit the necessary (and beautiful) changes we were making.

God is always doing a new thing, and sometimes we must be pruned severely so that we fit the new structure.  It may be the loss of a loved one, or a job; a necessary move away from support systems; life-threatening illness; major surgery; a fire; a divorce, a church-divide. We want to know what went “wrong.” Instead when I am in a major pruning stage, I need to be asking is: “What new thing are you doing, Papa-God?”

What new thing is Papa-God doing in you? Let me know. I’d love to pray with you about it, and have you pray with me.

Following Jesus every day in the everyday!

Christi